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A group of petitioners seeking to create a separate Jeffco library district filed a lawsuit Feb. 24 against the county, alleging that the Board of Commissioners acted outside of the law when it voted to exclude the county from such a system.

The plaintiff, former library board member Tom Atkins, represents 1,300 residents who earlier signed a petition in favor of a new district. Atkins said the issue could be put before voters this fall.

Nearly $40 million in budget cuts were proposed Friday by Jeffco Public Schools, including closure of two elementary schools, the elimination of 212 jobs and a halt to the sixth-grade Outdoor Lab program.

All district employees would also face a 3 percent pay cut during the 2011-12 school year, achieved through six furlough days.

Also proposed are increased fees for transportation and athletic activities.

The only way to get America out its economic morass, says Gary Hart, former U.S. senator from Colorado, is not by eliminating the deficit but by doing what America does best.

"The one thing in which America still has the lead is innovation. I'm talking about dramatic breakthroughs in non-carbon energy, things like fusion and rail transportation. We can do new, bold and better things that will create jobs and raise revenue," Hart says.

Because of a production problem, a story in the March 9 issue about a local concert by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra did not appear in its entirety. The complete story can be found at www.ColumbineCourier.com, and will be reprinted in a future edition of the Courier.

Columbine Courier reporter Emile Hallez Williams received five awards, placing first for Deadline Reporting and for Best Sustained Coverage; second and third for Best Education Story; and second for Best Series.

Republican John Odom, a former candidate in state Senate District 20, has been selected to succeed Kevin McCasky as Jefferson County commissioner.

Odom, 43, a Golden resident who owns part of Blue Sky Medical, a Wheat Ridge medical-supply distribution company, was announced March 1 as the Jefferson County Republican Party vacancy committee’s top candidate.

Odom lost to Democrat Cheri Jahn in the 2010 general election by about 4 percentage points.

A formal complaint against former Jeffco commissioner Kevin McCasky was filed March 2 with a state ethics panel, Colorado Ethics Watch announced.

The complaint was sparked by a Feb. 16 Columbine Courier story revealing that McCasky had proposed a $20,000 increase in county funding to the Jefferson Economic Council, which then hired him as president in January. The JEC is receiving $400,000 from the county’s general fund this year.

Violinist Cory Cranford’s first experience at a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert four years ago was memorable.

The Dakota Ridge High School student listened in awe, taking in the unique fusion of classical music with rock ’n’ roll. And he was invited onto the stage at the show’s conclusion and handed a surprise.

“They brought me up to the stage and gave me a guitar,” Cranford said. “That was the first time I’d ever heard of them. … They made me promise to take lessons.”

SOUTH JEFFCO — A local man determined to sneak away from the scene of an accident unnoticed had a major hole in his plan — after crashing into a fence, a section of it attached itself to his car, serving as a fairly obvious pull-me-over-and-check-my-blood-alcohol sign to law enforcement.

Golden officials warmed last week to negotiations surrounding the Jefferson Parkway, but city council members said they aren’t holding their breath that Jeffco or the parkway authority will work with them once the toll road is under construction.